3 ms·

the real question is why we need that performance in your phone? I'm honestly asking, because with every flagship phone (no mater the brand) there is the hype a

by aacid 6y ago

the real question is why we need that performance in your phone? I'm honestly asking, because with every flagship phone (no mater the brand) there is the hype about performance (X's processor is 2x quicker than Y) and it always makes me think. I don't think that in the last 10 years I ever had thought "I wish my phones CPU had higher clock speed"...

dwaite 6y ago
First, the whole phone needs to be well architected - the CPU, GPU, Flash, wireless and cell radios can each be bottlenecks for good performance. As the screen size and refresh rate increase, the needs of the CPU/GPU and Flash will increase. Mobile phones tend to be more interactive and thus have a larger negative experience with slow/jerky scrolling, slow response to taps including app launch, etc. Microcontrollers tend to have options from slowing down the clock rate to going into a deep sleep mode when there is no scheduled work. There has been a lot of work to optimize the scheduling of network/driver/app tasks to minimize power draw. It is also fairly common to see a CPU have lower power cores, typically for the OS to leverage for hardware support and background tasks separate from what might be considered the 'main' CPUs for this reason. Likewise, Apple has stopped shooting for a 50-100% increase in performance year over year, instead going for a mix of performance and power efficiency improvements. They have also started to do significantly more custom silicon design to support their hardware features, such as the Secure Enclave and neural engine additions used to support Face ID. 10 years is a long time though. Four years ago would be what, the iPhone 3GS? Apple went several years doubling the CPU, GPU, _and_ Flash performance and it was extremely noticeable.
aequitas 6y ago
> I don't think that in the last 10 years I ever had thought "I wish my phones CPU had higher clock speed"... Thats a thing with the computer industry, everthing is getting faster all the time but everthing keeps feeling getting slower. For me the pinnacle of UI was Mac OS 9, it was just so snappy and responsive. It's (pre emtive) multithreading was a pain to wait for but the UI itself was tactile. Apply only approached this on Mac OS X with (I believe) 10.7 Lion when they overhauled stuff under the hood (after upgrading to that version it felt like I bought a new machine). After that it's been downhill again.
tokamak-teapot 6y ago
The faster the processor, the quicker it can idle and use less power - and the smaller the battery requirement.
throwaway55554 6y ago
I believe Apple uses the iPhone as a test bed for its CPUs that they will eventually put into their Mac line. The Mac line doesn't make enough money to justify putting that much engineering into making a new CPU for them.

by aacid 6y ago

dwaite 6y ago

First, the whole phone needs to be well architected - the CPU, GPU, Flash, wireless and cell radios can each be bottlenecks for good performance. As the screen size and refresh rate increase, the needs of the CPU/GPU and Flash will increase. Mobile phones tend to be more interactive and thus have a larger negative experience with slow/jerky scrolling, slow response to taps including app launch, etc. Microcontrollers tend to have options from slowing down the clock rate to going into a deep sleep mode when there is no scheduled work. There has been a lot of work to optimize the scheduling of network/driver/app tasks to minimize power draw. It is also fairly common to see a CPU have lower power cores, typically for the OS to leverage for hardware support and background tasks separate from what might be considered the 'main' CPUs for this reason. Likewise, Apple has stopped shooting for a 50-100% increase in performance year over year, instead going for a mix of performance and power efficiency improvements. They have also started to do significantly more custom silicon design to support their hardware features, such as the Secure Enclave and neural engine additions used to support Face ID. 10 years is a long time though. Four years ago would be what, the iPhone 3GS? Apple went several years doubling the CPU, GPU, _and_ Flash performance and it was extremely noticeable.

aequitas 6y ago

> I don't think that in the last 10 years I ever had thought "I wish my phones CPU had higher clock speed"... Thats a thing with the computer industry, everthing is getting faster all the time but everthing keeps feeling getting slower. For me the pinnacle of UI was Mac OS 9, it was just so snappy and responsive. It's (pre emtive) multithreading was a pain to wait for but the UI itself was tactile. Apply only approached this on Mac OS X with (I believe) 10.7 Lion when they overhauled stuff under the hood (after upgrading to that version it felt like I bought a new machine). After that it's been downhill again.

tokamak-teapot 6y ago

The faster the processor, the quicker it can idle and use less power - and the smaller the battery requirement.

throwaway55554 6y ago

I believe Apple uses the iPhone as a test bed for its CPUs that they will eventually put into their Mac line. The Mac line doesn't make enough money to justify putting that much engineering into making a new CPU for them.